Tuesday, December 30, 2008

We are currently in Ft. Worth and will be here 'til next Monday for the annual Winter Conference, a conference for college students involved with Crusade in our four state region. I think this year we expect 900 students. I hope it's a life changing experience for all that attend; it was for us when we were students.

Rocky is part of the program team that helps plan each of the main meetings. It involves alot of serious stuff obviously but they also get to have alot of fun and make videos to keep the students awake. I don't know a ton about their content this year, but I look forward to seeing what they've been up to.

So anyway, while Rocky's been working and everyone on his team has been working, I've been finding creative ways to live happily in one room with a 21 month old. It's normally not too bad except when she's trying to go to bed. I usually have resorted to hanging out in the bathroom so I don't disturb her. On the 1st though we will have a suite so I'll be movin' on up. We were one of 6 randomly selected families to get a free upgrade this year. Awesome.

Our hotel is nice but doesn't have free internet in the rooms which is one downer. We're at the Renaissance Worthington in the heart of Sundance Square. The location is pretty dang awesome. I'm used to having to hop in the car anywhere we go while we're at winter conference, but this year I haven't had to get in the car once. I can just stroll to tons of stuff-- restaurants, book stores, little boutiques, etc. It's been nice.

I'm also excited to get to hang out with friends we don't normally get to see while we're here. Anyway, on to Adelaide's quirkiness.

Tonight as I was getting Adelaide ready for bed, I was talking to her about when she was a little baby and what it will be like when the new baby comes. I must have said "when she/he comes" because Adelaide starting singing "will be coming 'round the mountain." It's not one that I sing alot so I asked her where she heard it. She said, "watch little tv. headphones. will be coming 'round the mountain." Might not make sense to many but to me it meant she heard it on the little dvd player in the car (hence the headphones).

Adelaide is also funny because she can instantly be friends with any little kid. Today we were at Barnes and Noble here in Ft. Worth while Rocky was working (I think he was doing something really hard like running around as a deviled egg, yeah, ask me later). Anyway, she ran up to this group of four kids and just hung out with them for an hour while we were there. One girl was older and fell in love with Adelaide. Me and the moms just watched them play.

Last night when during our first dinner with the program team (which Rocky is part of) for the conference, Adelaide gave everyone fist pounds or knuckles as she sometimes calls them, ticked random people, and hugged everyone in the group all on her own with no prompting.

Tonight she became good friends with kids at Razzoo's where we ate dinner. She was leading the group in a crouch and jump routine. Even though these kids were all older than her too, they all complied. It's fun to see her extroverted self.

Also tonight as we were waiting for the food to arrive, Adelaide who was hungry and who calls all waitresses "lady" starting saying "hey lady. food. come."

Today as she was going down for her nap, I heard her giving herself a pep talk. She had been punished a little bit before bed and she was saying stuff like this, "i obey mommy. i sorry mommy. go to corner." It was funny. She didn't wake up in a better mood unfortunately.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Adelaide woke up Monday morning quite sick and having a hard time breathing. She wasn't talking much because it took so much work. If she did, she'd do it on an exhale because it took all the air she had. We were lucky enough to get in to see her doctor that morning. She had a breathing treatment done at the office, and we were sent home with a machine so we could continue treatments at home. That helped a ton. Right after the albuterol, we could see a big difference. She could breathe better and seemed to have more energy. Amazingly enough, we only had to do one more treatment later that evening. We thought we'd be up alot throughout the night, but Adelaide slept right through and woke up the next morning alot better. She now is breathing fairly normally and just seems to have a bad cold. We're so thankful it wasn't worse. We'll have to watch out for continued breathing issues like this though because Rocky had childhood asthma and breathing treatments were a regular occurrence for him growing up.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I forgot to post this but one of the funniest things Adelaide has said recently is this:

Me or Rocky or whoever asks: What's your name?Adelaide: MeeMax.

I don't know where she came up with it, but it was clear and consistent. The first time she said it, I could not stop laughing out loud which was probably a mistake. She kept calling her self MeeMax for 2 weeks!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Well it was not exactly on Christmas obviously, but during our visit to Louisiana to celebrate Christmas with our families that we had our white Christmas. We headed to Louisiana last Thursday and were greeted by at least 4 inches of soft beautiful snow. Snowing in Louisiana is a rarity so we were super excited to get to play in it. Less exciting were the complications the snow brought with it. We were supposed to stay with Rocky's parents for a couple of days and then with my mom the other half, but wound up changing all of our plans around because Rocky's parents didn't have power for 2 days. Since it was in the thirties outside we figured we'd better stay with my mom and enjoy the heater.

We were in town for a wedding Rocky was in and to visit with our families so our 3 day weekend was jam-packed. It was a little crazy but a fun time.

petting the horses at Rocky's parents'.

opening presents at my mom's house. I love Rocky's goofy expression in the background. I'm sad I don't have pictures of what she did earlier that evening; my mom brought her to look at some cool Christmas lights in town.

Making christmas cookies with Rocky's mom. Adelaide had a great time using the cookie cutters.

There were some sparklers left over from the wedding Rocky was in so Adelaide got to play with firecrackers for the first time. She was very cautious and would only hold it for a second before asking for help. I can appreciate that.

Riding a horse with her cousin Claire.Another horse riding picture. I love Adelaide's hair in this picture. That day it was just gorgeous, must have been the perfect humidity or something, but it had these beautiful big curls all day.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Tonight we went to the Trail of Lights with some friends. It was a good time despite crazy fog traffic and foot traffic at the park.

We will actually be in town for Christmas this year so we decided to go all out and get a real Christmas tree. We've never had one before and haven't even set up a tree at all in five years. Here's some pictures of our tree hunting and decorating.

This picture made me laugh. The cats were chewing on the tree wrap and Adelaide decided she should try it too.

Adelaide cracks us up all the time. Here's a few of the funny conversations we've had with her recently:

(Adelaide found a rattle and brings it to me.)Adelaide: What's this?me: it's a rattle. Shake it. We'll save it and give it to the new baby.Adelaide: Give it to baby?me: yes.(Adelaide proceeds to walk over to her bible and places the rattle on it on top of baby Jesus. The night before we'd read the story of the wise men bringing gifts to the baby Jesus.)

(Adelaide was having trouble falling asleep one night and I went up to check on her. This is what she had to say.)Adelaide: Mom, I ride a horse.me: yes, you did ride a horse.Adelaide: I want to ride tiger.me: a tiger? is that safe?Adelaide: no?me: that's right. riding a tiger might be dangerous.Adelaide: tiger. dangerous.me: is a cat dangerous?Adelaide: (hesitation) yes.me: is a dog dangerous?Adelaide: no.me: well, some might be. what about Jack (our neighbor's dog, a big lab)?Adelaide: no.me: what about toby (the benefield's big dog)?Adelaide: no.me: what about biscuit (rocky's parents' chihuahua)?Adelaide: yes. biscuit. dangerous.

(as we are walking out the door yesterday.)Adelaide: daddy, have jacket?Rocky: yes.Adelaide: have shoes?Rocky: yes.Adelaide: have wallet?Rocky: yes.Adelaide: have phone?Rocky: yes.Adelaide: have keys?Rocky: yes.(it's nice to have someone to remind us to get all our stuff.)

Friday, December 05, 2008

Here's some more pictures I've been wanting to post. I think I should pretty much be caught up at this point. Enjoy.

Here's some from a camping trip we took in late October with church. It was our first two night trip with Adelaide. She really did well both nights considering it got pretty dang cold.

Pace Bend park.

cute marshmallow covered face.

the kids playing around the first morning.

Adelaide kept trying to feed Ben and give him something to drink.

yummy breakfast the second morning-- our friend sasha made us yummy french toast and bacon. maybe the nicest camping breakfast i've ever had.

We recently took a trip to the Austin Children's Museum. The last time we'd been was in January or something like that. Adelaide wasn't quite walking last time so she definitely had more fun this time.

During music time which Adelaide loved but I thought was a little out there.

cooking and cleaning in the play kitchen. i thought Adelaide looked so big in the little apron.

Adelaide could have probably played right here all day. It was like a shape sorter of nuts and bolts. The pieces she dropped in the holes fell out into a basket next to it. Here's Adelaide trying to figure out where the pieces go.

All decked out in the vest and hat and saying "cheese." Adelaide has suddenly gotten pretty good at looking at the camera and saying cheese. Saying cheese however doesn't always make for the most flattering pictures.

More sorting.

I have a picture almost identical to this from last January. I think Adelaide loved this giant lite brite even more now.

At the Campus Crusade staff conference we attended right before Rocky headed to New Zealand Adelaide got to ride a horse for the first time. She had a blast.

Here's some from our trip to Louisiana last week. It was weird being there without Rocky. The roadtrips couldn't have been smoother though, and even though she was sick with 2 ear infections, sore throat, and chest congestion she was such a fun kid to be around most of the time.

Adelaide showing her doll how to ride the pony.

I love this picture. It looks like Adelaide is really trying to drive. Her pops lets her do all kinds of cool things like this.

Adelaide in her new (used) couple her grandparents found for her. Can you tell she likes it?

I'm pregnant. We've very strongly hinted at it, and I'm sure if you've read closely you've figured it out. I'm about 17 weeks along now and things seem to be just fine. The baby's heartrate seems perfect and somehow the little kid already looks cute. We are super excited especially since we'd been trying since May. Last go round, it happened before we knew it, and this time my doctor had called for prolactin testing because I wasn't ovulating well. Ovulating well or not, we thank God we didn't have to go through alot of fertility testing and that we were able to conceive relatively quickly and easily.

This pregnancy has already been a little bit more difficult than my first. I have to go in regularly not only to my obgyn but also to my endocronologist. I have to get bloodwork done every 3 weeks and go visit her every 4. So far my thyroid levels have doubled since I've been pregnant, but my doctor has been adjusting my meds to match my rollercoaster hormones. I also had to be on progesterone. I'm not considered "high risk" but I am considering higher risk than last time for sure. Weird that things are so different this time.

I don't know if it's related to the hormones or not, but my morning sickness has also been worse. If you've seen me recently and I looked like death warmed over, that's because that's basically what I feel like. Doing normal stuff with Adelaide and around the house has been a challenge. I tried 2 nausea medications, something I never did with Adelaide, and finally found one that works. I'm not a huge medication person especially when pregnant so I'm just trying to take it when I'm super miserable. Now at 17 weeks, I'm still struggling with bouts of dry heaving.

This kiddo is due to arrive May 19, 2009. That's almost exactly 26 months from Adelaide's birthday. We were always hoping that the kids were be about 2 years apart so I think that will be good spacing. Since I found out I was pregnant 3 of my friends have discovered they are pregnant too. We're all due within 2-3 weeks of one another. I'm already envisioning playdates.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

libby posing for a storyboard shot. At the sink where Tuhoe tries to wash away his past

a fake prison wall, it's make of Styrofoam. Don't tell the prisoners

people just standing around in prison

Tomorrow is the first day of our shot. Things look to be coming together, even if it is the day before. Please pray that all will go well and that we all keep a good attitude through it all. I have been able to spend some time with Tuhoe [the man who's story we are telling] and he is a great guy. Very cool to see such intense life change.-RC